But Visit Pensacola Is Running Low on Cash
While Florida’s tourism numbers slide for a second straight quarter, Escambia County is posting growth — even as its tourism agency wrestles with a reimbursement standoff with Clerk Pam Childers’ office.
The News Service of Florida reports that statewide tourism numbers dipped for a second consecutive quarter, weighed down by lingering inflation and a backlash from Canadian visitors over President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and trade policies.
- Florida drew an estimated 34.01 million second-quarter visitors, bringing the total for the first half of the year to 73.5 million, according to numbers posted online by Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing arm. Domestic, overseas and Canadian travel into the state were all slightly down for April through June compared to the same period a year earlier, and the first-half domestic and Canadian totals also trailed 2025.
Escambia County isn’t part of that slump. For the second quarter, Visit Pensacola reported to its board that Escambia County had 823,500 visitors, up 7.7%.
- Tourist Development Taxes—the tax on room nights at hotels, condos and Airbnbs—hit $13.65 million for the second quarter, up 4.8%. Both Pensacola Beach (up 6.2%) and Perdido Key (up 10.6%) turned in strong showings from April through June.
What Sours the Good News
Visit Pensacola’s Executive Committee spent a significant chunk of its August 4 meeting wrestling with a cash flow squeeze tied directly to how the County reimburses the agency for its marketing spending.
- As of June, the organization had roughly $600,000 in cash reserves, and while staff described the operation as stable, committee members acknowledged growing strain from reimbursement delays.
About $1.3 million in expenditures has been paid and is sitting unreimbursed, with another $1.7 million in future obligations tied to the agency’s marketing contractor, Showcase, still to come.
The core of the problem is a new documentation hurdle imposed by Clerk Pam Childers, who also serves as the county’s comptroller. Under the existing arrangement, Visit Pensacola pays Showcase, which in turn pays the individual advertising vendors, before the agency submits its reimbursement request to the County.
Recently, Childers’ office began requiring cleared checks from each of Showcase’s individual vendors before processing those reimbursements. Committee members pushed back, noting the requirement wasn’t in place in prior years and questioning whether it goes beyond the “reasonable documentation” standard laid out in the contract.
No Quick Fix
Visit Pensacola’s existing line of credit matures in October 2026, and Regions Bank has told the agency that any request to increase that credit line would have to wait until the renewal process at the close of the fiscal year.
- The executive committee concluded that pursuing an advance or expanding the credit line would only postpone the underlying issue rather than solve it.
The committee’s move: Staff was directed to keep pushing for reimbursement of everything currently outstanding, escalate discussions with Childers’ office to negotiate a more workable documentation process, and explore ACH payments with Showcase and its vendors to speed up verification and cut down the backlog going forward. Read Visit Pensacola Exec Committee.
Manufactured Crisis
The financial crisis that Clerk Childers has created for Escambia County is escalating.
- Nonprofits have had to sue Childers to receive their community grants.
- ECAT has a vendor that sent its workers home last week because of outstanding bills.
- Instead of rewarding Visit Pensacola and Showcase for boosting tourism, Childers creates obstacles for them in paying their vendors.
Who else has Childers not paid?